Wisconsin’s Presidential Electors Meet Monday, December 17

MADISON, WI – Ten Democratic Presidential Electors will gather at noon Monday at the State Capitol to cast Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes for President and Vice President of the United States. At the November 6, 2012 presidential election, Wisconsin voters selected the Democratic slate of Presidential Electors who were represented on the ballot by the Democratic candidates, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Wisconsin has one elector for each of its eight Congressional districts and two statewide electors. Presidential electors are nominated by elected officials and legislative candidates of each political party with ballot status in Wisconsin and by independent candidates for president. Only those electors pledged to the winning Presidential candidate cast an Electoral College vote.

Like most states, Wisconsin awards Electoral College votes on a “winner-takes-all” basis, meaning the presidential candidate with the most votes gets all of the state’s Electoral College votes. However, Nebraska and Maine award their votes on the basis of which candidate has won each Congressional district.

The Presidential Electors will actually cast two ballots, one for the office of President and one for Vice President, and then sign six original Certificates of Votes Cast to validate the process. The Congress will meet in joint session on January 6, 2013 to count the electoral votes received from each state.

The electors participating Monday were chosen at a public meeting in the State Capitol on October 2 by Democratic elected officials and legislative candidates as required by Wisconsin law. The electors include one State Senator, three members of the State Assembly, and a former Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor. They are as follows:

The electors will meet at noon in the Governor’s Conference Room at the Capitol. Kevin J. Kennedy, Director and General Counsel of the Government Accountability Board and Wisconsin’s chief election official, will call the meeting to order. A complete agenda for the meeting is available on the G.A.B. website: http://gab.wi.gov/about/meetings/2012/presidential-electors.

Subsequently, the Government Accountability Board staff will arrange for Certificates of Ascertainment to be signed by the Governor and Secretary of State. The Certificates of Ascertainment and Certificates of Votes Cast will be sent to the Vice President of the United States in his capacity as president of the Senate, federal archivists in Washington, DC, the Wisconsin Secretary of State and the Chief Judge of the Federal Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The U.S. Electoral College was designed in 1787 by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. They determined that the number of electors from each state must equal the number of each state’s representatives to Congress (U.S. Senate and House). Federal employees and members of Congress are prohibited from serving as electors.